Here we again arrive at the point, at which the historian of the cultivation of the Portuguese and Spanish drama finds a stumbling-block in the way of his enquiries; for the materials necessary to the right prosecution of his labour are either entirely wanting or involved in contradiction. In the history of the Spanish theatre it has already been stated how little positive knowledge the Spaniards possessed even in the age of Cervantes and Lope de Vega, respecting the early formation of their national comedy.[83] To Torres Naharro, so strangely overlooked by Cervantes, the honour of being the real father of the Spanish comedy, must, on every just principle of historical criticism, be conceded. But Gil Vicente was a contemporary of Torres Naharro; and the dramatic compositions of the Portuguese poet, so far approximate to the ruder forms of the Spanish comedy, as to entitle Portuguese writers to claim for their own country the honour of the invention of that comedy. Spanish Autos either did not exist in the beginning of the sixteenth century, or if they did, they have disappeared from the domain of literature. A whole series of Autos by Gil Vicente are, however, extant; and several were written within the first ten years of the sixteenth century. Some are entirely in the Spanish language; others are half in Portuguese and half in Spanish, but all present, in their radical features, the form and character of the Spanish spiritual comedy. Was Gil Vicente then the first writer who exhibited a kind of poetic design in dramatic entertainments for the celebration of christian festivals, and thus raised to literary consideration a style of composition which had previously been degraded by monks and buffoons? Or are the corresponding works of contemporary Spanish writers lost in oblivion? Was Gil Vicente an imitator of Torres Naharro, or did the latter copy from the former?
The number of dramas which Gil Vicente has bequeathed to posterity is considerable, though compared with the fertility of some of the Spanish poets, by no means extraordinary. They are arranged in classes either by himself, or, as is more probable, by his son, by whom they were published; and in taking a critical view of them this classification is very convenient. At the commencement appear the Autos or spiritual dramas; next follow some anomalous works, which are oddly enough, in preference to all others, styled comedies; these are succeeded by the tragi-comedies; and last of all come the Farsas. Various small poems in the Spanish and Portuguese languages form an appendix to the collection. These works display a true poetic spirit, which, however, accommodated itself entirely to the age of the poet, and which disdained all cultivation. The dramatic genius of Gil Vicente is equally manifest from his power of invention, and from the natural turn and facility of his imitative talent. Even the rudest of these dramas is tinged with a certain degree of poetic feeling. Scenes in stanzas and redondilhas which, though harmonious, are of antiquated construction, succeed each other with wonderful truth and simplicity. But there appears in these compositions no perception of what may be properly called the perfection of dramatic poetry; and no trace of an endeavour to attain classic excellence, calls to mind the spirit of the sixteenth century. Gil Vicente’s language, too, is altogether in the old and uncultivated style.
The Autos, or spiritual dramas, contained in the collected works of this poet, are sixteen in number. They cannot properly be called Corpus Christi pieces, or Autos Sacramentales; for most of them were written to be performed on Christmas night, in celebration of that festival, either before the court at Lisbon, or at royal residences in the country, and they perfectly correspond with the object for which they were intended. Pastoral poetry forms the basis of the whole, even of those which, taking a totally different turn from the rest, become alternately didactic and allegoric. By this characteristic feature they are distinguished from most of the Autos of Spanish or posterior origin. Accident favoured the national poetic genius of the Portuguese in the creation of the spiritual pastoral drama. Gil Vicente while yet a youth and a tyro in the poetic art, surprised King Emanuel and the Queen on the birth of the Infante, afterwards King John III. by the production of a little pastoral drama, which appears better adapted for celebrating the festival of Christmas than the birth of a hereditary prince, but which was, perhaps, on that very account the more flattering to the royal family. This pastoral drama is, in consequence of the distinction it thus obtained, placed before Vicente’s Autos, and a notice by the son of the poet explains the reason why that precedence is assigned to it. The little piece is written in the Spanish language. Vicente’s son observes in his notice, that it was received with particular favour because it was something new in Portugal.[84] It is therefore probable that at this period Gil Vicente, as yet unconscious of his own talent, only followed in the footsteps of the venerable Juan del Enzina.[85] Having at the request of the royal family altered his piece in such a way as to render it more suitable to representation at Christmas, he was thus accidentally directed into the path which naturally led to the union of dramatic poetry with christian mysteries, and which he afterwards steadily explored. Year after year with increasing taste and fancy he continued to write Christmas pieces, which at last assumed a more enlarged form. Among the personages introduced in these dramas there are always some of the pastoral class, intended to represent directly, and also in a certain degree allegorically, the shepherds at the manger of Bethlehem. But the inventive poet soon advanced a step further. He composed dramas in the same style for the celebration of other religious festivals, without any admixture of pastoral poetry. Among his Autos, however, there is one in celebration of the festival of Corpus Christi, which was one of his earliest productions. The notice annexed to it states that it was performed in the year 1504. It is founded on a simple incident in the life of St. Martin, and possesses scarcely any thing of the character of the later spiritual dramas, or Autos Sacramentales, properly so called. But a far greater display of fancy and theatrical splendour, was the result of Gil Vicente’s subsequent endeavours to dramatize the mysteries of the catholic faith. It would appear that spiritual dramas of this class, in which so much was to be seen and admired, had never before been produced either on the Portuguese or the Spanish stage. It cannot, therefore, be doubted, that Gil Vicente’s Autos had their effect on the Spanish dramatists of the sixteenth century; and that if they were not imitated as models, they served at least as examples for emulation.
The invention and the execution of Gil Vicente’s Autos present an equal degree of rudeness. The least artificial are also those in which the most decided traits of national character appear. The shepherds and shepherdesses who are introduced into these Autos are Portuguese and Spanish both in their names and manners. Their simple phrases and turns of language are similar to those employed by the characters in Saa de Miranda’s eclogues, except that their discourse is more negligent and occasionally more coarse. In combining the appearance of angels, the devil, the holy virgin and allegorical characters, with popular scenes, an effect perfectly consistent with the ideas of the audience was produced; for, according to the catholic doctrine, the miracles with which Christianity commenced are continued without intermission; through the mysteries of faith, the connection between the terrestrial, celestial and infernal worlds is declared; and by allegory that connection is rendered perceptible. The critic would therefore judge very unfairly, were he to regard as proofs of bad taste the consequences which a poet naturally entails on himself in writing according to the spirit of his religion. Making allowance, however, for that spirit, the rudeness of Gil Vicente’s Autos must be acknowledged even by him who measuring them by the rule of critical judgment, is perfectly disposed to view every system of religion only on its poetic side. For instance in one of the simplest of these Autos some shepherds who discourse in Spanish, enter a chapel, which is decorated with all the apparatus necessary for the celebration of the festival of Christmas. The shepherds cannot sufficiently express their rustic admiration of the pomp exhibited in the chapel. Faith (La Fè) enters as an allegorical character. She speaks Portuguese, and after announcing herself to the shepherds as true Faith, she explains to them the nature of faith, and enters into an historical relation of the mysteries of the incarnation.[86] This is the whole subject of the piece. Another Auto in which the poet’s fancy has taken a wider range, presents scenes of a more varied nature. Mercury enters as an allegorical character, and as the representative of the planet which bears his name. He explains the theory of the planetary system and the Zodiac, and cites astronomical facts from Regiomontanus, in a long series of stanzas in the old national style. A Seraph then appears who is sent down from heaven by God in compliance with the prayers of Time. The Seraph, in the quality of a herald, proclaims a large yearly fair in honour of the Holy Virgin, and invites customers to it.[87] A Devil next makes his appearance with a little stall which he carries before him. He gets into a dispute with Time and the Seraph, and asserts that among men such as they are, he shall be sure to find purchasers for his wares.[88] He therefore leaves to every customer his free choice. Mercury then summons eternal Rome as the representative of the church. She appears, and offers for sale peace of mind, as the most precious of her merchandize. The Devil remonstrates; and Rome retires. Two Portuguese peasants now appear in the market. One is very anxious to sell his wife, and observes that if he cannot sell her, he will give her away for nothing, as she is a wicked spendthrift. Amidst this kind of conversation a party of peasant women enter, one of whom, with considerable comic warmth, vents bitter complaints against her husband.[89] The man who has already been inveighing against his wife immediately recognizes her, and says:—“that is my slippery helpmate.”[90] During this succession of comic scenes the action does not advance. The Devil at last opens his little stall and displays his stock of goods to the female peasants; but one of them who is the most pious of the party seems to suspect that all is not quite right with regard to the merchandize, and she exclaims: “Jesus! Jesus! True God and man!” The Devil immediately takes to flight, and does not re-appear; but the Seraph again comes forward and mingles with the rustic groupes. The throng continues to increase; other countrywomen with baskets on their heads arrive; and the market is stored with vegetables, poultry and other articles of rural produce. The Seraph offers virtues for sale; but they find no purchasers. The peasant girls observe that in their village money is more sought after than virtue, when a young man wants a wife. One of the party, however, says, that she wished to come to the market because it happened to fall on the festival of the mother of God; and because the Virgin does not sell her gifts of grace (as graças); but she distributes them gratis (de graça). This observation crowns the theological morality of the piece, which terminates with a hymn of praise, in the popular style, in honour of the Holy Virgin.
These specimens will afford an adequate idea of the spirit and style of Gil Vicente’s Autos. His largest work of this class may, however, be referred to, in proof of the little attention he bestowed on dramatic plan in the composition of his spiritual comedies. It purports to be “A Summary of the History of God.” After the prologue, which is spoken by an Angel, Sir Lucifer (Senhor Lucifer,) enters, attended by a numerous retinue of devils. Belial is president of his court of justice (meirinho de corte), and Satan gentleman of his privy council, (fidalgo do conselho). After this privy counsellor has performed his part in the temptation of Adam and Eve in Paradise, the whole details of which are represented on the stage, Lucifer confers on him the dignities of duke and captain of the kingdoms of the world.[91] Next succeeds a series of scenes which summarily represent the history of the christian redemption. The World accompanied by Time and angels enters as a king. The representation of the fall of man is followed by the history of Abel, by whom a beautiful and simple hymn is sung.[92] The next scenes exhibit the histories of Abraham, Job, and David; and thus the Auto proceeds through the incidents of the old and new testaments until the ascension of Christ, which is represented on the stage amidst an accompaniment of drums and trumpets.
On comparing the Autos of Gil Vicente with those of Calderon, the difference appears not much less considerable than that which exists between the works of Hans Sachs and Shakespeare. But the graceful simplicity with which many of the scenes of these spiritual dramas are executed, raises the Portuguese poet infinitely above the poetic shoe-maker of Nuremberg.
The most unimportant of the dramatic works of Gil Vicente are those which the poet and his son have called comedies. One is a dramatized novel, in which a young lady, whom her lover, a priest, has seduced, appears on the stage in child-bed, and after long lamentations and discussions is actually delivered of a daughter. In the second half of the piece the child whose birth is thus announced has attained the age of womanhood, and is in her turn introduced as a lady loving and beloved. The action, however, is not destitute of interest. In the first half of the drama, a Witch, who summons the Devil on the stage, assists the unfortunate lady in child-bed, and afterwards, five laundresses (lavandeiras) make their appearance. Nevertheless, amidst much extravagance and absurdity, the author has represented several scenes of domestic life, in a style equally pleasing and natural. No example of the intrigue of the Spanish theatre is to be found in this piece, but there is introduced a fool (parvo), or more properly a waggish clown, a character which appears to be the rude prototype of the Spanish gracioso. Pleasing songs in the Spanish language are interspersed through the dialogue. The young girl who was born at the commencement of the piece takes leave of the public in the character of a princess. Several of Gil Vicente’s other works, which are styled comedies, are dramatized novels, similar to that just described. One which is entitled, A Floresta de Enganos, (the Forest or Gardens of Deception),[93] is merely a dramatized garland of sprightly fancies enriched with allegorical and mythological ornaments. At the head of the dramatis personæ appears the burlesque character of a philosopher, who, because he has reproved some wicked men for their misconduct, is, by way of punishment, tied to a fool (parvo) with whom he is thus compelled to associate. He regards this punishment as the severest torture that could be inflicted on a philosopher. He speaks Spanish, and the replies of the fool are more remarkable for their rudeness than for their wit.[94]
Gil Vicente’s tragi-comedies may be regarded as rough outlines of that kind of drama which subsequently formed a variety of the heroic comedies[95] of the Spanish stage. They are not historical dramas, but festival pieces adorned with a certain pomp of allegory, mythology, magic, &c. and occasionally interspersed with pathetic scenes. They were performed before the court on festivals or particular occasions, which are specified. One of these dramas, entitled, Amadis de Gaula, and founded on some of the incidents in the celebrated romance of the same name, was, in spite of its inoffensive character, forbidden to be performed in Spain in the reign of Philip II. The cause of this prohibition probably was, that the disguise of Amadis, as a pilgrim, was deemed a profanation of the sacred habit. This piece which is written in the Spanish language, is destitute of all merit of invention. Others of these dramas exhibit more traces of the poet’s fancy; but in none is there the foundation of a genuine dramatic plot. One entitled, Exhortaçaõ de Guerra, (Exhortation to War), was doubtless a favourite with the court. A pious magician appears who has learned necromancy in a sybil’s cave. By powerful spells he summons to his presence some subject demons, whom he suffers to revile him in the coarsest language.[96] He however obliges them to conjure up the spirits of Polyxena, Penthesilea, Achilles, Scipio, and other celebrated characters of antiquity. These spirits appear in succession, and address fine compliments to the royal family. In another tragi-comedy Providence is introduced as a Princess. But the most varied of all is Triumpho do Invierno, (Winter’s Triumph), in two parts. Besides a multitude of characters, among which an allegorical personification of Winter is one of the most conspicuous, Gil Vicente exhibited to his audience a view of the open sea, agitated by a storm during the most inclement season of the year. The noise and confusion among the ships in distress, and the oaths and prayers of the Portuguese sailors expressed in rhymes and redondilhas, would naturally be gratifying to a public who at the period when the piece was written, took particular interest in maritime affairs.[97] Another of these tragi-comedies is also a satire.
Gil Vicente was destined by nature to be a comic poet. His farças (farces) are by far his best productions; and to them he was indebted for the chief portion of his fame, as well as for the honourable but ill-chosen surname which some critics have applied to him. If the literary relationship between two dramatic writers were to be decided by the comic strength of their works, then indeed Gil Vicente might be truly termed a second Plautus. But neither in respect to their form nor their spirit can Vicente’s farces be ranked in the same class with the regular comedies of Plautus. Nevertheless the name of farces, was not given to those comic dramas, on account of their irregularity or their burlesque style. At the rise of the modern theatre in Spain and Portugal all dramas were denominated farces,[98] and that the name has been continued to be applied to Vicente’s comedies, is an accident arising merely from the want of a better term of classification. It is in like manner the result of accident, that in France, England and Germany, the same term is still employed to distinguish precisely that species of drama to which Gil Vicente’s farces belong. These pieces are equally burlesque in their design and execution. They may, in a certain sense, be styled dramas of character; for Vicente attached great importance to the burlesque representation of some characters which he sketched from life. But he never thought of founding his comic interest on plot and intrigue; and in the degree of cultivation to which he had attained, and above which he never rose, he was incapable of designing and executing, on a comprehensive scale, a dramatic picture of character with true delicacy of outline, and still less with interesting truth of colouring. His farces, like his other dramas, have no regular plot for their ground-work. They are dramatic conceptions of scenes of real life, rapidly sketched by a glowing fancy, with genuine comic feeling, with a certain poetic keeping, even when derived from the commonest nature, and worked up by more or less of plastic talent, into some form, but without any regard to correctness, and altogether executed as a mere sportive task. In these farces the language and metrical form are the same as in Gil Vicente’s other dramas. The alternation of the Portuguese and Castilian idioms is seldom governed by any other rule than the caprice of the poet. Upon the whole Gil Vicente’s farces bear much resemblance to the Entremeses which subsequently became favourite entertainments on the Spanish stage; like them they are not divided either into acts or scenes.
Among the eleven dramas, which in the collected works of Gil Vicente are entitled farces, there are two festival pieces, in the popular style, which might with equal propriety have been ranged in one of the preceding classes. The first piece is truly a farce. Two miserable servants, the one a Portuguese, the other a Spaniard, who are almost starving in the service of two coxcombs, meet together in the street at midnight, and each in his respective language complains of his sad fate. The Portuguese describes his master as an enamoured enthusiast, who employs himself day and night in writing silly verses, and in singing them to his own wretched music, but who never appears to think of eating and drinking.[99] This romantic gentleman (escudeiro) soon makes his appearance with one of his own song books in his hand. Before he begins to sing a song, he reads aloud its title, and names himself as the author. When he has finished it he commences a new song, first pronouncing very formally the words, “Another by the same,” in the style of the old Cancioneiros. He proceeds to sing under the window of his mistress Isabella, a miller’s coquetish daughter, where his music is accompanied by the barking of dogs and the mewing of cats. The blending of these songs, which though insipid, possess something of the tender and melancholy character of the old cantigas, with the conversation of the lover and his servant,—with the whisperings of the serenaded Isabella from her lattice window,—and with the rage of the gallant at the dogs and cats, which mortify him by the interruption of his singing, was doubtless calculated to operate very powerfully on the risibility of the audience, though much of the ludicrous effect of the scene must now be supplied by the imagination of the reader.[100] The mother of Isabella at length appears, with a lantern in her hand, endeavouring to learn what is the cause of the uproar. Here a change of scene commences with the lamentations of the old woman in a burlesque caricature style.[101] She enters into a dispute first with her coquetish daughter, who has expressed herself pleased with the serenade, and then with the gallant, who at length sings a farewell stanza, and departs. But this collection of songs and dialogues is as far from having any real dramatic object as are the other farces of Vicente, in which he sometimes introduces Witches,—at that period objects of particular interest with the public,—performing incantations in concert with the Devil; sometimes Frenchmen and Italians who speak a kind of broken Portuguese, perhaps often enough heard on the quays of Lisbon. In another of these lively entertaining dramas, an enamoured old man is the principal character.